Q: Jane writes that when she makes a new form by clicking the Form button in the Create tab of the Ribbon, all the controls are the same width, and she can’t resize them individually, as in older versions of Access.

A: This is a “feature” of recent versions of Access. It is called Layout, and here is how you can turn it off: First, select the group by clicking the little four-headed arrow in the upper left corner (make sure you see orange outlines around all the controls), then right-click, select the Layout item, and then Remove Layout from its context menu:

The Layout feature is occasionally useful – for example, to create a quick data entry form for heads-down data entry – but mostly not, so I generally turn it off as soon as I create a new form using the Form button (or I just select the Form Design button instead, which lets me position controls individually).